China tries lithium battery for frequency regulations

Nanophosphate lithium iron phosphate batteries and systems are said to be a better fit for grid stabilization than other chemistries.

A developer and manufacturer of advanced Nanophosphate lithium iron phosphate batteries and systems, says it will supply a 2MW grid energy storage to Ray Power Systems Co. Ltd., a Chinese company focused on developing the frequency regulation market and relevant technologies.

“The project in China is to validate the technical capabilities and benefits of energy storage as a fast-ramping, accurate, and clean resource for providing frequency regulation services,” said Eldon Mou, CEO of Ray Power. “Limited overall system ramping capability has created renewable integration issues as well as potential risk of grid instability because of the high penetration of renewable generation, particularly in northern China. The battery’s manufacturer, A123 Systems, has demonstrated the viability and reliability of its product through a number of successful global commercial deployments, and we expect this project to showcase energy storage as a valuable resource for meeting China’s growing frequency-regulation demand.”

“We believe China represents a large market opportunity for our energy storage technology, including as a solution to address the ramp-management challenges associated with the increased deployment of wind and other renewable energy generation assets,” said Robert Johnson, VP of the Energy Solutions Group at A123. “Today’s announcement builds on our progress in China and is a significant step toward proving the capability of our technology for providing frequency regulation in China. Ray Power has a deep understanding of China’s power market and of energy storage technologies and has developed a set of comprehensive solutions for deploying energy storage to capitalize on this growing opportunity, so we look forward to success in this initial deployment and believe it could lead to additional projects going forward.”